CITY OF SAN DIEGO RETIRED EMPLOYEES’ ASSOCIATION

BOARD MEETING MINUTES

September 13, 2008, Balboa Park Club, Balboa Park

Present: President, Nancy Acevedo, Vice President Patti Karnes, Joe Flynn, Terry Flynn, Alyse Ford , Ruth Ann Hageman, Maggie Smith, Jean Struiksma, Lynn Swanson, Sylvia Tatum, John Tsiknas and Bob West.

Meeting was called to order at 9:33 a.m.

Minutes of August 12, 2008 were discussed with Bob West suggesting an addendum on Health Insurance and asking for a fuller description of what the Second Reading meant for the Waterfall Ordinance that was passed by the City Council on September 2^nd. Minutes (moved, Bob West, seconded, John Tsiknas) were approved.

Ron Moskowitz (of Retired Fire and Police, RF&P) and Nancy sent a letter of appreciation to Mayor and Council for their support of Version A of the waterfall ordinance. She also sent a letter to SDCERS asking that CSDREA’s Survivor Benefits Guide be included as a tear-out in SDCERS’ Free Spirit.

Ron Moskowitz, RF&P, and Nancy sent email requesting status of COLA reserve. Awaiting reply from SDCERS. Joe said he thought Hovey said the COLA would last until 2017.

Thank you note from Roxanne on behalf of CSDREA for flowers.

Letter of appreciation from North Island Credit Union.

Sylvia Tatum’s Treasurer’s Statement of Operations showed ending balances in the Reserve Fund of $2,058.00 in account #01; $35.000.00 in 08; $87,13l.50 in 09, for a Reserve Fund Total of $40,686.75. The Operating Fund Balance is $5,668.00, for a Grand Total of $47,705.29.

All funds are now with North Island Credit Union. Legal Fund now receives monthly deposits. Operating Fund is a CD checking account. Terry said the electronic deposit from SDCERS will take three months to set up.

Patricia will contact Ellen Sneberger and Joe and Lynn will contact Kathleen Dene and Marian Rogers; John Tsiknas will contact James Mueller, and Nancy will contact Alice Vaughan.

Eight people have signed up. Do we want to continue with the luncheons? Nancy proposed bringing up this question at the next general meeting. It was discussed whether we can continue with the low attendance. Should we have quarterly meetings rather than monthly meetings? Bob West suggested that we put it in the newsletter in order to get a broader response. Patti suggested that we thoroughly think through the consequences of this this issue before taking action. Something will be in the newsletter about the general meeting discussion on this issue. Lynn and Jean Struiksma will work on the wording for the newsletter.

The Council passed the Waterfall’s second reading on Sept. 2^nd. It does not appear that the additional ordinance that Mr. Keller, SEC’s independent Consultant, is recommending will impact retirees. Instead, this additional ordinance appears to promise that the City will not use pension earnings in the future to pay for additional benefits, beyond the 13^th check, Corbett and the Supplemental COLA. Next month, the Council will be coming back with additional wording.

Lynn: the menu has already been set, based on last year’s menu, with Tom Ham’s, and our agreement, as decided at the last meeting. Lynn and Jean will handle it. Nancy: anything that we can do to encourage participation by people of low income would be desirable. Joe Flynn: there are two groups: one makes $250 per month, another that makes $500 per month. Terry: if you’re having trouble affording the luncheon, then they should contact Sylvia. If people really cannot afford it, they can be a greeter for three months. Motion Tsiknas: Recommend we drop the whole idea Second: Flynn. Motion passed.

Retirement Board meets Sept. 18 & 19; Dave Hall will be at our meeting next time and make his report at that time. Regarding the actuarial assumption changes that the SDCERS board will be considering, Patti said that Aquirre commented at the Sept. 8^th Council’s Audit Committee that if the 8% assumed rate of SDCERS’ return were to be dropped to 4%, the the unfunded liability would approximately double. Joe added that if the SDCERS’ Board dropped the expected rate of inflation for the long term, as recommended by Chiron, the unfunded liability would not increase if the Board votes to drop the expected rate of return from 8% to 7.75%.

Award Recognition Committee: Report from Patricia Karnes and Jean Struiksma: Roxanne Story Parks, SDCERS’ Chief Compliance Officer was suggested for the annual award. She has done two years of solid tax work on SDCERS’ Voluntary Compliance Program and the tax settlement with the IRS, achieving SDCERS’ tax determination letter, setting up the group trust for the City, Port and Airport, and completing a graduate program in Taxes at the USD law school. The board unanimously approved her for the annual award.

Nominating Committee: Bernie Gibson will throw his hat in the ring. Nancy: Kathleen Dene, retiree from the City Attorney’s office, had expressed an interest in being on the board. (Joe Flynn will pursue this). Joe has been talking with Dick Wilkins of AUE to seek members and candidates. Dick thanked the Advocacy Committee and others for attending the trials and supporting AUE. As a result he will help CSDREA recruit members by sending applications and the brochure to his members electronically when they are available.

Advocacy Committee: Joe and Virginia went to the Council meeting and represented us regarding the Waterfall. Patti suggested we watch SDCERS’ financial status.

Programs: Patti: programs are booked through January 13. Feb., Mar and April meetings are pending. It was suggested that Elder Law and Advocacy would be appropriate for a panel discussion. Nancy has heard that Deputy District Attorney Paul Greenwood is a very good speaker on elder abuse . Joe suggested we develop an outreach service to call those members wanting daily checks. Alyse recommended the Alzheimer’s speaker service.

Newsletter: Nothing to report.

Membership: The draft brochure is available for review (Joe printed 50 copies). Joe said that SDCERS is considering doing away with the new retiree seminars.

Word Processing/Excel: Alyse will get the name of the person who does word processing.

John Tsiknas said that this job does not require a lot of data entry. The job is entering new member names and deleting members who are no longer in the organization.

Website: Very little extra activity.

Balance of Fund : $4.68 million.

Other: Comments are being invited on the Health Insurance Open Enrollment booklet. Joe said that he will draft a letter to Jay Goldstone thanking him for his support on the Waterfall issue. Terry Moved, Patti Seconded.

Meeting Adjourned at 10:52 a.m.

Ruth Ann Hageman, Secretary